Deputy Country Director – Syria Response* At Welthungerhilfe

The position is to be filled as soon as possible, with an initial contract duration of one year. There are very good prospects for an extension. Employment location will be Gaziantep, Turkey.

Welthungerhilfe (WHH) has been engaged in the Syria Response since 2013 working in the fields of development cooperation and humanitarian aid. We seek to improve the access of people affected by the Syria crisis to quality life-saving and life sustaining humanitarian assistance and strengthened basic services including protection services, whilst building on their inherent capacities and facilitating access to livelihoods opportunities, in order to reach our objective to improve their wellbeing and resilience.

As Deputy Country Director – Syria Response you are a key member of the Syria Response Strategic Management Group, support the Country Director and act as her representative. Your primary objective will be to oversee project implementation across the regional office in Gaziantep and field sites in Turkey and North West Syria (NWS). You will work closely with the respective Heads of Department to ensure the support services are appropriately structured and resourced for the planned activities.

Furthermore, you will line manage the Heads of Projects (HOP) across Turkey and NWS and will oversee program implementation, ensuring that operations are implemented within WHH’s regulations, procedures, guidelines, and strategy. With your work you will ensure productive and accountable relationships at local level, result-oriented team work and a safe environment for staff, beneficiaries and assets within WHH’s security framework.

Your responsibilities

• Represent all aspects of projects and overall accountability for ongoing implementation
• Maintain close working relationships with local donor representatives (for ongoing projects), local authorities, NGOs, and local counterparts. ​
• Line manage Heads of Project ensuring inter-department co-ordination at project level for on target implementation
• Enable an effective team through result-oriented management systems, providing leadership, on-job capacity building and designing staff development strategies
• Close coordination with the Programme Unit including the Head of Programmes, Sector Coordinators and Grants Unit ensuring regular information flows, adherence to sector strategies and proposal development processes
• Ensure overall provision of and adherence to WHH policies, procedures, guidelines, donor regulations, systems and standard practices
• Provide leadership in coordination with support functions to ensure their timely/efficient delivery in line with project procurement and staffing plans, including planning for office scale-up/scale-down based on funding and contextual changes
• Ensure quality implementation including optimal use of financial resources, accurate forecasting and regular project follow up
• Ensure timely engagemernt with donors regarding modifications / extensions, and an orderly conclusion of projects
• Strengthen efforts to document the impact of WHH activities in the area
• Participate in programme development taking into account the local context and circumstances in the National Strategy
• Provide regular analysis on the context and humanitarian situation for the development of project proposals and safety assessments
• Participate in the identification of local partners and support the development of tailored capacity building plans
• Oversee the management of local partnerships at field level and ensure follow-up with partners on quality implementation
• Ensure a safe and secure environment for staff, beneficiaries, and assets by ensuring the local security procedures are up to date and SOPs are being followed in line with the WHH policy, promoting regular staff training, providing safety and security analysis, recommendations, and follows-ups

Your profile

• A university or polytechnical degree in project management or a comparable level of qualification
• A minimum of 5 years of senior management experience in NGO project management, of large project teams
• Previous expereince working in Turkey and/ or Syria or within the Middle East is an advantage
• Experience in security/crisis management
• Coordination and organisational skills – even under a high workload
• Ability to work in a multinational team
• Excellent communication and negotiation skills and intercultural sensibility
• High level of mental and physical resilience and readiness to travel to areas with volatile local conditions
• Readiness to receive necessary vaccinations for traveling to Welthungerhilfe’s project countries
• Excellent spoken and written English language skills; German, Turkish and/or Arabic skills are an advantage

Our offer

We offer you the opportunity to work in a responsible and interesting field as part of an extremely dedicated team. Welthungerhilfe attaches great importance to the personal and professional development of its employees and the balance of their work and private life. Remuneration is based on our gender-independent salary scale. In addition, Welthungerhilfe offers numerous other benefits, which are listed under “Our benefits”.

*Welthungerhilfe values diversity and ensures an inclusive, non-discriminatory working environment. We welcome applications from suitably qualified people from all sections of the community.